Two-Part Webinar Learning Series: The Colonial Urge to Commodifying the Climate Crisis
Date: Thursday, November 16, 2023
Time: 1PM PT / 2PM MT / 3PM CT / 4PM ET / 5PM AT
Location: Zoom
Series Description:
Indigenous Climate Action is dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts of climate change on Indigenous communities and advocating for sustainable solutions that respect Indigenous sovereignty, knowledge, and cultural practices. As we navigate the complexities posed by this climate crisis, it is vital to address not only genuine solutions but also the false solutions that can perpetuate more environmental harm and social injustices. The aim of this webinar series is to facilitate open and informative discussions that shed light on various false solutions that are often presented as viable approaches to combat the climate crisis and counteract them with real, Indigenous-led solutions.
Part 2: Uplifting Real Solutions
Panel highlighting real solutions that are Indigenous-led. This discussion will cover questions like:
What are real solutions?
How are Indigenous peoples enacting real solutions in their territories?
How can we support Indigenous-led solutions?
Why is this relevant in light of COP28 negotiations?
Panelists:
Danielle Frank is a Hupa tribal member and Yurok descendant. Frank has been deeply involved in the cultural and political aspects of her community from a very early age. Born during the beginning of a 20 year resistance to undam the Klamath River led by her tribal communities, Danielle grew up learning from strong indigenous activists.
In high school Frank helped create the Hoopa Valley High School Water protectors club. This was a space for high school students to begin to understand water policy and how they too could influence decisions made regarding their homelands. At this age, Danielle also participated in the creation of Save California Salmon’s Advocacy and Water Protection in Native California curriculum as a curriculum review board team member.
Frank is currently working as the Native Youth Coordinator for the organization Native Americans in Philanthropy, where she is using her experience with grassroots organizing to help make more funding available for Indigenous communities through the development of young Native leaders. She is also a board member and a youth mentor for Rios to Rivers, where she works both in her local community providing resources for native youth and globally advocating for environmental justice. In 2022 Danielle served as Miss Na:tini-xwe’ of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, serving as a role model for young Native Women and as a Cultural Ambassador for the Hupa people.
xʷ is xʷ čaa (Kati George-Jim) comes from my mother’s side (Qwat’sta’not, Charlene George), tied to my hereditary responsibility to TSUK lands, waters and all familial relations. My paternal side of my family is from W̱S͸KEM of W̱SÁNEĆ, where I also have obligations to maintain familial ties to land and relatives through our culture.
I am a young person who is grateful for the mentors and teachers that come from land-based, ancestral legal orders (especially the land itself). My belief in the laws and the land shape who I am as W̱ILṈEW̱ | Hwulmuhw | quuʔas. I have been criminalized by the settler state of canada for my spiritual and political actions, like many Natives before me. My hope for the future is to have freedom from the conditions of colonialism, and collectively believe in, and practice, our laws.
Thomas Lopez Jr. was born and raised in Northern Cheyenne Territory or what is now known as Commerce City, CO. Thomas identifies as Xicnao and Sicangu Lakota. He is a Grandchild of Chief Leonard Crowdog Sr. and the child of Water Woman Sharon Dominguez & Sundance Chief Thomas Lopez Sr. They spent years working with the International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC) working to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and to create visibility for Indigenous youth fighting the climate crisis. Thomas continues this working locally and Internationally as a mentor for young folks stemming from many walks of life. After exploring several corners of movement spaces Thomas has chosen to inspire change through combining culture, comedy and history to show Indigenous people in a relevant way to actively fighting erasure and tokenization.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a Dënesųłiné mother from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and the Executive Director and co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), an Indigenous-led climate justice organization in so-called Canada. Deranger is a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, and sits on various boards including Bioneers, It Takes Roots Leadership Council, Climate Justice Resiliency Fund Council of Advisors, and WWF Canada; and was a founding member of the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus.